This invention is directed to a crimping tool of the type used for crimping a small article such as an electrical connector, and more particularly to a crimping tool which is a portable hand tool.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,267,717 and 3,406,558 show typical examples of tools used for crimping electrical connectors. One of the tools shown is portable, but the other is not. A problem in prior art crimping tools is that because of the high crimping pressures involved, the load bearing surface of the jaw of the tool tends to deflect the jaw during operation of the tool. Such deflection produces a non-uniform pressure across the surface of the electrical connector resulting in defective crimps and thus defective connections between the connector and the wires to which the connector is being crimped.
The application of uniform pressure is particularly important when an electrical connector is being crimped to a ribbon-type conductor. A ribbon-type conductor is a unitary structure containing a plurality of parallel conductors or wires surrounded by and separated from each other by insulation. When an electrical connector is crimped to a ribbon-type conductor, the blades within the electrical connector cut through the insulation around each of the conductors and make contact with the conductors. If uniform pressure is not applied across the surface of the electrical connector during the crimping operation, some of the contact between the blades and the conductors may not be complete, and thus there can be no current flow between the blades and these conductors after the crimping operation is completed.
One solution to this problem has been to substantially increase the size and weight of the tool to increase its resistance to deflection. Although this solution may not be a serious problem in a non-portable power driven tool, it is in a portable hand tool.